U.S. Pat. No. 5,757,084 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,149,244 disclose wheel bearings for utility vehicles comprising two taper roller bearings. The inner rings of both the rolling element rows are spaced from each other through a bush-like spacing element possessing different outer diameters. In this way, the positions of the inner rings on the shaft journal are fixed whereby a pre-stress of the double row wheel bearing is established.
A problematic aspect of the solutions of the prior art is that installation as well as dismounting has to be assured with help of a retaining element that is used temporarily for the positioning of the spacing bushing. If not, the bushing would fall out and obstruct the introduction of the shaft journal into the wheel bearing. Moreover, during removal of the wheel bearing, the spacing bushing falls out between the inner rings because it cannot be retained from the outside. Therefore both a higher complexity of installation and a disadvantageous dismounting are accepted.